Area Science Park in Ecuador to strengthen cooperation on AI and data management
From 14 to 18 September 2026, a delegation from Area Science Park made up of Mariarita de Luca and Federica Bazzocchi, researchers at the Laboratory of Data Engineering – LADE, and Federica Mantovani, Infrastructure Manager, visited the Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Digital Technologies at ESPOL (Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral), a historic public university based in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The mission is part of EU-CELAC, the European initiative that promotes scientific and technological cooperation between the European Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The visit, whose main goal was to explore cooperation opportunities in fields related to edge AI and intelligent systems, ideally represents the exchange counterpart to the study visit hosted by Area Science Park in June 2026, also under EU-CELAC, when a delegation of Latin American universities and research centres visited the ORFEO Data Center.
During the week, the delegation visited several ESPOL research centres, including CIDIS – Centro de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de Sistemas Computacionales, a centre dedicated to developing technologies based on computer vision, machine learning, robotics and energy systems, and CTI – Centro de Tecnologías de Información, dedicated to research on information and communication technologies, with activities also touching on industrial artificial intelligence and technologies for intelligent environments. The delegation also visited CIBE – Centro de Biotecnología, whose mission is to generate, apply, transfer and disseminate biotechnological solutions to support the competitiveness of the agricultural industry, and SOLCA, one of the most advanced oncology institutes in Ecuador and the region.
The meetings with ESPOL’s research groups brought out several lines and areas of collaboration around which shared interests could converge and complementary activities be developed: among these, drug discovery, virology, oncology, multiomics, hydrogen, robotics and new materials.
Alongside these research lines, discussions also covered programmes for sharing guidelines and best practices, pathways to support the management and definition of research infrastructure sustainability programmes, and technology transfer initiatives. The theme at the heart of the collaboration remains, in particular, data management according to FAIR principles, for which the groundwork was laid for future structured training programmes.
Alongside the visit, the Area Science Park representatives spoke at the workshop “First Summer School on Research Data and FAIR Principles – Ecuador Edition“, promoted by ESPOL, Universidad Indoamerica, the Ministerio de Educación, Deporte y Cultura of the Government of Ecuador, ISTICI, Area Science Park and CEDIA, and held over two sessions: on 18 September in Guayaquil and on 21 September in Quito.
During the sessions, Mariarita de Luca, Federica Bazzocchi and Federica Mantovani guided participants through the themes of Open Science and research data management, with particular attention to FAIR principles and the FAIR-by-Design approach.